Between the lines

Honestly, I don't have a plan

"Do you have a plan?"

"Not exactly."

He had the slightest idea what to do to stop her and his situation got even more complicated as Hua Qiangu decided to have that fight somewhere else.

"Where did they go?" Tom asked worriedly. "She deserved to be kept in chains. How could someone treasure their life so little? Is she that miserable that she would rather perish than keep going? Coward." He uttered full of disappointment and he kicked a bush to relieve his anger on something. "If I found her..." He stopped midway and he noticed Zhu Ran's smirk. "You look like an idiot. Be useful and help me find her."

"You're neither my leader nor my shifu."Zhu Ran vociferated. "Stupid kid."

"Shifu?"

"It's.."

"Forget it. We don't have time for it. We have to find her. Where is she?"

"You were supposed to have a plan."

"And you were supposed to know her." They scolded each other while the few demons left from their army watched them. "Go and find her." Tom commanded, forgetting he had no power over the demons. The demons looked at each other, confused.

"Haven't you heard? Go and find her." Zhu Ran barked. "Faster."

"What are we supposed to do if we find her?" One of the young ones enquired. "We aren't allowed to interfere. She said.." Tom decided to put an end to an unnecessary cascade of words.

"You inform us. Now be gone." The demons didn't wait for him to say it a second time. As long as Zhu Ran and Tom would do the difficult job, they had no reason to be against their plan. The lady had been very kind to them and none of them wanted her to be killed.

"Couldn't they be more stupid than that?" Tom hissed as he was alone with Zhu Ran.

"What do you intend to do when we find her?" He'd hoped Tom had something in mind, but it was enough to see his face to realize how wrong he'd been. "Tell me you have a plan."

"I'll think about something."

"Wonderful. You'll think about something." Zhu Ran sneered. "When do you intend to think about something? We don't have time for you to think about something." He reminded him.

"Why don't you think about something?" Tom retorted.

Bai Zihua took a glimpse of the dead bodies that lay on the field and tried desperately to prevent Hua Qiangu from hurting anyone else. But her heart was as cold as ice.

"Bai Zihua, even if I die, I want you and the whole world to die with me! I want you to watch those people of the world you love die by my hand." Her verdict was cruel and he knew he had to stop her, but all he could do was to call her name, hoping that it would remind her of the girl she once used to be.

"Little Bone!" He pleaded with her. She finally faced him. "If you want to kill, then kill me! Don't give up on your last chance! Turn back."

Hua Qiangu felt her heart break into thousands of pieces, each of them a bleeding mess she didn't know how long she could hide. But she laughed despite the burning pain her heart had to endure.

"I have no teacher. I have no friends. I have no lover. I have no children." She didn't know if she hoped he would kill her there and then to make her stop her or to wish for a miracle and him proving her wrong. Yet she continued, the pain getting stronger and stronger as she remembered how happy she used to be and how much life had taken from her. "Originally, I thought I had the whole world. Only later did I realize that it was all fake. The ones who loved me died for me. The one I loved wants me to die. The one I trusted betrayed me. The one I depended on threw me away. I don't want anything, nor do I ask for anything. I just want to live simply. But...but Heaven forced me. You forced me. Do you think I can still return at this point?"